LaFond Earns ACC Award From Coaches

Maryland Athletics

3-21-2014

GREENSBORO, N.C. – Maryland junior Thea LaFond turned her outstanding indoor track and field season into continued accolades on Friday when the Atlantic Coast Conference coaches voted her the Women’s Indoor Field Performer of the Year.

She won one of the eight season-ending awards given by the league after the indoor schedule.

LaFond, from Silver Spring, Md., won the pentathlon and triple jump at the ACC Indoor meet. She also finished fourth in the high jump to earn 25 individual points for the Terrapins at the conference meet, outscoring any other individual male or female at the championships.

She was also voted the ACC Women’s Field MVP at the meet, the Mid-Atlantic Region Women’s Field MVP by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association and earned two national weekly awards from the USTFCCCA.

Florida State’s Bob Braman was named ACC Men’s and Women’s Coach of the Year after the Seminoles swept both team titles.

Other women’s winners included Duke distance runner Juliet Bottorff as the Track Performer of the Year and Miami sprinter Shakima Wimbley as Indoor Freshman of the Year.

Maryland opens its 2014 outdoor season on Saturday at the UTEP Springtime Meet and will play host to the Terrapin Invitational on Saturday, March 29 at the Kehoe Track Complex.